Two days ago, around 5 pm, I was outside my fenced raised bed veggie garden trying to gain access to my collection of unruly tomato plants.

I heard a strange call...at first, it sounded like a bird, though not like any I had heard before. After a while, the sound seemed closer now, and low to the ground. I thought perhaps it was a fox, though I have had fox here in the past and they have more of a bark.

I stepped away from the very secluded area that is my vegetable garden (well, heck, my whole property is secluded), and peering through the foliage, I saw a bobcat about 100 feet away. It saw me around the same moment, and I noticed IT DIDN"T RUN OFF.

It occurred to me it could have rabies, so I figured I'd better go inside the house. I would have really freaked if it crouched and took a predator stance, the way that Luther does when he stalks something. I mean, it would have taken it seconds to reach me, and with my injured knee, I could go nowhere fast.

I decided to straighten up and not make myself look so small.

Once inside the house, I realized I'd left my cell phone on top of one of the fence posts. Darn! I had to go back down to retrieve it, but I grabbed a broom, just in case. The bobcat had disappeared from view, but could still be heard periodically calling, perhaps for a mate? Later, I heard it continue to call from the heavy thickets in my backyard.

I was relating the story to my friend and neighbor yesterdayy, and she mentioned she learned from talking to other neighbors that there have been multiple sightings of a bear in our neighborhood, along with a female bobcat with 2 cubs. That must've been her. Wow.

Kind of exciting and a little bit scary at the same time. I live pretty close to town, maybe a mile from Main Street. A bear was around last year, but I have yet to see it. I did see one at our town center where our municipal offices are located, along with our community center, sports complex, walking trails, etc.

Bear and bobcat sightings are not unusual in our town, which is very woodsy, but it is unusual in my paticular area which, as mentioned, is very close to town and is bordered by two 2-lane highways that are pretty busy.

A gardening friend of mine was over here the other day with his pole pruner, and he very kindly pruned a lot of branches on my mulberry tree, some of which were rubbing up against the side of the house, near the roof, every time there was a small breeze. So I was very glad he was able to do that for me. Having removed some of these lower branches really opened up the canopy and gives the appearance now of a parklike setting rather than just an overgrown tree.

I gave him 2 eggplants from my garden, which he'd told me he hadn't had success growing in the past. He's offered to return and work on my crabapple. September would be the perfect time to do it.

So I had a knocking noise in my Honda (rear) ever since the dealer put on 4 new tires for me. i brought it there TWICE and waited over an hour each time (outside for safety, but during heat waves, so each visit was like an endurance test) but they couldn't replicate the noise and were thus unable to fix it. I wanted to test drive it WITH them so I could demonstrate the noise, but they refused due to COVID concerns.

Their advice was to keep driving it until it got worse.

I felt uneasy driving it anywhere beyond the local area since I didn't know what the problem was and didn't want to break down somewhere.

So I finally brought it to the local Sunoco guy down the road from me and the mechanic there did drive with me (back seat, mask on, windows down). He heard the noise immediately and a few hours later, it was fixed ($118). It was some rust rubbing against the backplate of the wheel, or something to that effect.

I was kind of glad to have them do some kind of service for me I'd have to pay for, as I'm constantly over there due to low tire pressure warnings on my car and they always fill up the tires no charge.